For this week’s Throwback Thursday, Giant Step President/CEO Maurice Bernstein takes us back to the legendary 1997 Winter Music Conference party for Nuyorican Soul at the Shore Club! What do you remember about the epic daytime party? For those that missed it, catch a video clip as well as the backside of the invite flyer after the jump.

Back in the 90s, the Winter Music Conference (WMC) was a global affair where house DJs from all around the world would come and invade Miami for a week. Back then it was purely an industry event, which inevitably also brought out only the most serious of dance music lovers.

For this year particular year, we decided to throw a big daylong event as a teaser for the forthcoming Nuyorican Soul album that we were releasing – the album was of course produced by none other than Kenny and Louie aka Masters at Work.

We held the party at the Shore Club – the “old” Shore Club with the huge outdoor space and pool. It was a largely coveted event. We had a great live set from Luis Quinteros who brought along some local Miami musicians to play with him. Special guests included Roy Ayers, India Arie and of course Louie Vega, and Kenny Dope, amongst many, many others.

The Nuyorican Soul album was very, very highly anticipated on a global level. It was one of those releases that was going to cross over with dance music. And you’ve got to remember, dance music was still extremely underground at that point – it was not mainstream at all. It was totally peripheral. This was before middle America discovered this genre. So there was some serious musical history making happening here, to start.

And by going beyond the music, we created a unique experience that felt more like a one stop chill shop. We had cigar rollers, amazing Cuban food, volleyball, and a pool all in an outdoor area – it was pretty nuts. We also had limbo, which was hilarious and lots of fun. This was really one of the all time most memorable Winter Music Conference parties.

The who’s who of DJs were there, and we had about 2000 people in attendance – it’s an event that’s still talked about today. On the production side, it was definitely a much larger scale event than what you’d typically find at WMC. We also had several sponsors, which was still a fairly new concept back then. Through and through – this was a next level party – a game changer.